Joe, that bowl looks steep - and it's definitely got its share of scree. Glad you didn't have aything more serious from the fall - it looks like you could have gone quite a ways under the wrong conditions. It's a shame you got so close and had to turn back, but that's nature of off-trail route-finding - sometimes there just ain't no good route!
I've never done Baldy - is going up the center of the bowl common? I suspect in winter there's a snow-path up to the ridge, but do people regularly do it in the summer on the scree? Someone needs to come up with "scrampons" for those conditions!
Glad you're OK brother - let's stick to trails for a while, 'kay?
